Book Description

A new adhesive restorative dental material must meet rigid requirements. These must be kept in mind in screening inorganic polymer systems reported in the literature; but since the available literature data are limited, only three requirements-toxicity, chemical stability, and ease of manipulation-were used in this evaluation. The problem was approached by considering polymers according to the group number of the elements contained in the polymer backbone. The inorganic polymers were in turn grouped into three classes: Class 1, polymers having only one element in the polymer backbone; Class 2, polymers having two different elements in the backbone; and Class 3, polymers having three or more different elements in the backbone. Inorganic polymer systems which appear most promising for use as dental materials are the Class 2 polymers containing linear silicon-oxygen backbones and Class 2 polymers containing boron-phosphorus or phosphorusnitrogen ring systems as moieties in the backbone. (Author).